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German Sociological Research Methods – HearSay German B1
Join Leon and Johanna for discussions on sociological research methods, one short conversation at a time. Each lesson trains your ear until you can follow every word and answer back.
Lessons Comparing different research methods Leon and Johanna share their frustration with online surveys and discuss why Johanna prefers conducting qualitative interviews.
Discussing the challenges of a task Johanna explains the tedious process of transcribing interviews to Leon and why her professor still believes it is highly valuable.
Comparing casual and professional concepts Leon and Johanna jokingly compare the daily gossip at Leon's shop to academic field research.
Discussing bias in data collection Johanna and Leon discuss how age bias and unrepresentative samples can easily skew the results of online surveys.
Discussing ethical boundaries Leon and Johanna discuss the balance of time and money in research before Johanna raises the ethical question of observing people without their knowledge.
Debating research dilemmas Leon and Johanna debate whether researchers should inform participants they are being watched, considering how it might change their behavior.
Proposing a compromise Johanna suggests debriefing participants after an observation as a compromise, and Leon agrees that working with human subjects is rarely perfect.
Distinguishing cause and effect Johanna complains about her statistics software, leading Leon to help clarify the difference between correlation and causation with a simple example.
Discussing the impact of phrasing Johanna and Leon discuss how the way a question is phrased can completely change the results of a survey.
Illustrating how questions influence answers Johanna gives examples of how different question formulations prompt different thoughts, leading Leon to ask about intentional manipulation.
Evaluating the reliability of studies Johanna and Leon talk about how research can be manipulated and why it is important to look at who funded a study.
Critiquing representation in online data Johanna explains how researchers use social media data, while Leon points out that this method excludes people who do not use these platforms.
Explaining the need for qualitative data Johanna explains to Leon why her neighborhood study requires real-life stories rather than just numbers, while Leon encourages her efforts.
Making an informal agreement Leon offers to share stories about his regular customers the next day, and Johanna agrees to meet without using a voice recorder.
